Tasers prove a shot in the arm for police

The effectiveness of police training on the use of Tasers is being reviewed after a CBD officer was hospitalised by his own weapon almost two weeks ago, after shooting himself in the arm.

Police say the officer received burns treatment at St Vincent’s Hospital following a struggle with a man resisting arrest, during which he injured his arm with the stun gun.

The officers were responding to reports of a nightclub brawl on a Saturday night in the Rocks, and arrested the 27-year-old Glenwood man for common assault, resisting arrest and malicious damage.

The NSW police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, said last year that officers would be trained in the safe operation of Tasers before being issued the device. But Greens police spokesperson, Sylvia Hale, said that this incident showed the ‘shortcomings in whatever training is being provided.’

‘It indicates the potential dangers of rolling out Tasers widely,’ she said. ‘Supposedly, the police that have been given the Tasers have been fully instructed in how to use them in a responsible and safe manner. But one must question how effective and appropriate that training has been.’

However, NSW Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dave Oens, said that the ‘successful’ use of the instrument since being issued to ‘General Duties officers in October supported the appropriateness of the training provided.

‘This is the only incident where the Taser operator has received an injury and as such there is no suggestion that the user is prone to harm,’ he said in an issued statement.

But he admitted the accident was being reviewed and that any training matters arising from the review would be addressed.

Tasers were widely issued in NSW last year on a 12-month trial basis, shelving an Ombudsman inquiry that later produced a report slamming current police operating procedures of the ‘potentially lethal weapon’ as ‘inadequate’.

‘There are known risks with using Tasers, and police must receive clear, comprehensive and consistent guidance to ensure safe and effective use of this weapon,’ said the NSW Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, who declined to comment on the latest incident.

The report also revealed a Sydey man died of a heart attack after being repeatedly shot with a Taser in 2002, in one of the first uses of the weapon in NSW.

The use of stun guns is heavily criticized in the US, where more than 150 deaths have resulted from the weapon’s use, most recently in California in early February.

In the Queensland town of Ipswich, a 16-year-old was hit by a car after being forced to lie on the road when police threatened him with a Taser and pistol. He died on February 7.